Yesterday as I arrived at our church, one of my new friends (a woman who I hadn't even met six months ago) asked me how my lemon pies turned out. I had mentioned my lemon meringue pie quest to her about three weeks previously, and she remembered it all that time. This exchange (which was really heartwarming to me) was preceded by me spending all of the previous morning sitting at a table with three other neighbors (also people I hadn't even met six months ago), chatting and working on a couple of very crafty projects.* The fact that I was able to do this is significant for two reasons:

1)With the exception of crocheting, I am not the least bit crafty.

2)I tend to be somewhat shy at times, and certainly cannot carry on light banter for more than about fifteen minutes unless I'm pretty well in my comfort zone.

The concert is this Sunday night. It's a community inter-faith Christmas concert/Food Pantry benefit. This is the 10-year anniversary of the event, and to commemorate it, Craig Jessop (Conductor for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir) will be coming up to conduct a few of the numbers, and bringing some of his choir with him. How fun, huh? We've been rehearsing since the first part of November, and it's been fun to learn some new challenging songs.

As fun as these rehearsals have been, they've taught me through uncomfortable experience that my breath support is not what it once was. That's a little discouraging. It's hard (actually, it's impossible) to stay on top of all the things that you'd like to do and learn and experience and maintain, you know? I'd love to spend more time singing and studying vocal technique and improving that particular skill, but honestly, at this particular time, its place on the priority scale just isn't high enough for me to make any major changes there. And that's okay with me. I've done some of that, and now it's time to do some of something else. And perhaps one day it will be time to return to doing some of what I've done before. Or perhaps not. I guess I'll just have to see.

And on that philosophical note, I'm going to go downstairs and make myself a very un-philosophical pastrami sandwich. Have a nice few days.

-cc

*I can't tell you what the projects were, because two of you faithful readers will be receiving samples for Christmas presents. It would be a shame to ruin the surprise, right?